. >> think not that i have come to abolish the law and the prophets. i have come not to abolish, but to fulfill. >> in "matthew," jesus is a proponent of torah piety, just like the pharisees. >> ( dramatized ): whoever breaks one of these commandments will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. for i tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. >> narrator: the jesus of "matthew" singles out the pharisees for a bitter attack. >> ( dramatized ): woe to you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites. for you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside look beautiful, but inside, they are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of filth. >> now, in jesus' own times, the pharisees weren't that prominent a group. why does matthew tell the story this way, so that a group that was less consequential during jesus' own lifetime now becomes the main opponent? it's precisely because that's what's going on in the life of matthew's community after the war. the pharisees are becoming